BICOM

Gaza Strip: Head of the IDF Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman said Tuesday was the “most intense day of fighting so far in the ground manoeuvre in terms of the number of terrorists killed, the number of firefights and in the use of ground and air fire.”

• The IDF is engaged in fighting three Hamas strongholds simultaneously, in Jabalya and Shajaiya in the north and in the “heart” of Khan Yunis in the south.
• Speaking yesterday Prime Minister Netanyahu assessed, “so far, we’ve killed roughly half of Hamas’s battalion commanders. We’re setting accounts with everyone who murdered, raped and slaughtered our people. The ground shook in Khan Yunis and Jabalya. We are winning every battle, but that has a painful price.”
• Yesterday seven IDF soldiers were killed in combat, with the IDF announcing two more fatalities this morning.
• As part of the fighting, dozens of Hamas combatants were killed and infrastructure substantially damaged.
• The fighting has included troops entering buildings on foot, going house to house and engaging in combat in close quarters.

Home front: Despite the intense fighting, Hamas continues to launch rocket attacks against Israeli communities.

• Hamas fired two barrages of rockets at Israel on Tuesday, one at central Israel and the other at southern Israel. One of the rockets directly hit an apartment building in Ashkelon. Two elderly women sustained light injuries from shrapnel in that attack.
• At least 15 rockets were fired towards central Israel, with at least three rocket landing in the Tel Aviv area, including inside a school that was empty at the time. Footage showed a rocket landing very close to two youths on a street in Tel Aviv.
• Separately, the war cabinet ministers met with representatives of the hostage’s families and heard testimonies from some of the released hostages (more details below in the Israeli media summary).
• Facing harsh criticism Netanyahu said afterwards, “I fully share the deep concerns of the families whose loved ones are still being held in Gaza. I understand the uncertainty. I understand the intolerable difficulty. I told the families that we aren’t sparing any effort to get their loved ones back. Getting all of our hostages back home is one of the three supreme objectives that were set in the war, and those objectives serve one another.”

Lebanon: Hezbollah continues to fire rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles towards northern Israel.

• In one barrage, around 20 rockets were fired towards Kiryat Shmona and Bet Hillel.
• In response, the IDF returned fired at the source and struck various Hezbollah positions.
• In an unusual statement, the IDF said it “regretted an incident” in which the Lebanese army suffered casualties. The IDF explained they had “acted in self-defence against a threat that was detected in a well-known launching ground and Hezbollah observation post.” It added that the incident was under review.

Context: On the 60^th day of the war Israel is simultaneously engaged in fighting in three critical areas within the Gaza Strip, both in the north and the south.

• The intensity of the fighting attests to their tactical ability and resoluteness, although it could still take weeks to subdue Hamas. There is ongoing concern that the diplomatic timeline may cut the fighting short.
• Israel has continued to call for civilian evacuations, to avoid civilian casualties. So far it is estimated about one third of the population has left Khan Yunis through a prescribed humanitarian corridor.
• In addition COGAT released a photo of the convoy of aids trucks queuing to enter Gaza, claiming the holdup was due to the UN.
• Despite hostage family calls to do a deal even at the price of releasing arch terrorists from Israeli prisons, a deal of that nature does not appear on the agenda. Instead the IDF believes that the fighting serves the goal of increasing the pressure on Hamas to free the hostages.
• Khan Yunis is now considered the most fortified concentration of Hamas’s miliary forces, including four of its 24 battalions. It could also be the current location of the senior Hamas leadership, though tunnels are thought to extend from Khan Yunis to Rafah. It could also be the location of the hostages, making the military operation even more complicated.
• The latest assessment from IDF Southern Command estimates that overall 6,000 Hamas fighters have been killed and several thousand more have been wounded.
• 84 IDF soldiers have been killed in the ground operation, many of them as a result of anti-tank missiles fired at very close range. Hamas fighters have been able to emerge from tunnels, attack and then disappear underground.
• Earlier in the week, the IDF said they uncovered over 800 tunnel shafts and destroyed 500 in northern Gaza. However, with hundred of kilometres of tunnel this could represent only a small fraction of the network.
• According to the Wall Street Journal, US officials saying that Israel is considering pumping seawater into the tunnels, in an effort to destroy the network and force concealed Hamas fighters to the surface.

Looking ahead: As part of the US administration’s close coordination with Israel, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is expected to soon visit Israel. He will be particularly keen to discuss Israel’s future plan for Gaza.

• Beyond the advances so far, the final area that Israel will need to target will be the southern most city of Rafah. This is the main route of the smuggling tunnels that are used to import weapons. This will be crucial to ensure Hamas are not able to rearm in the future.
• Netanyahu also related to ‘the day after’, saying “Israel would have to guarantee that the Gaza Strip was demilitarised. Only one force can guarantee the Gaza Strip’s demilitarisation: the IDF. No international force can be responsible for that. I won’t shut my eyes and I won’t accept any other arrangement.”